By Estelle Rouhaud

Anyone who went to the G20 march organised by Put People First in central London on Saturday will agree if I say that it was a very successful day: 35,000 people participated (which, if honest was far more than initially expected) to a very peaceful and cheerful atmosphere, people from many different backgrounds and many different age groups were all together, singing and walking. It got huge publicity in the British and foreign media… and even the sunshine came out once in a while.

Jobs, justice, climate… these are the three watchwords of the campaign. They ‘are’, not ‘were’, because Put People First was not just one day, not just one march and not just one protest. Put People First is a campaign, and a long term one at that, aiming at improving the way the world of today works, tangled up in one of the worst recessions of the last 80 years, a world divided between North and South, a world divided between those who can (just about) face the financial, economic, and climate crisis and those who can’t, a world which desperately needs unity and solidarity between this North and this South to face together the Crisis.

Climate… For AGCC, one of over 160 organisations on the Put People First platform, the prospective is not, let’s say, positive. We can already read in the news that the communiqué of the G20, supposed to be released at the end of the London meeting on Thursday, won’t include a significant part on climate change. Without mentioning that 10 days ago, The European Council was, again, postponing any decisions on how much should be given to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation. Will three more days make a difference in the leaders’ mind? Will Lord Stern’s brilliant speech yesterday at the German Ambassador’s residence make a difference? If not, I am asking, who and what will do?

35,000 people in the streets, along with the “global authority on climate change” (as described by The Guardian yesterday) calling on the leaders to react and to act, millions of people threatened every day by our angry planet, I am asking again, who and what will do?

G20 is half-way through Copenhagen, G20 is either an opportunity or another new failure.